Houston Texans: Three players that are in danger of being cut
Player #2: Kendall Lamm
To say that Kendall Lamm hasn’t helped this team in some way would be an understatement. His story of clawing his way onto an NFL roster is nothing short of magnificent. Lamm is a 2015 UDFA out of Appalachian State and his time with the Houston Texans may be up as the franchise has made some notable investments on the offensive line over the past couple of seasons, via the draft as well as free agency.
With the Houston Texans selecting Julién Davenport in the 4th round of 2017 NFL Draft as well as Martinas Rankin in the 3rd round of this year’s draft, this team isn’t playing around in terms of setting expectations of how important the offensive line is to Deshaun Watson‘s health. He is the engine to this offense and he must have a sturdy frame of parts that will be able to protect him at all times.
The team also signed versatile offensive linemen Zach Fulton and Senio Kelemete this off season so the old Rick Smith notion of patching up the line with a bunch of UDFA’s is long-gone in the Brian Gaine-era.
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The 6-foot-6, 310-pound tackle has been solid this season thus far and he might want to thank Rankin for getting hurt because this gave him an opportunity to shine, at least for one more season. But Lamm’s viability on this roster all hinges on how confident Rankin can quickly grasp the system. Because of Lamm’s familiarity, it may be his saving grace but out of all of the guys I’ve mentioned today, his bubble has swelled to the largest with his performance.
PFF has him graded out at 67.4 on offense so far through the preseason with a remarkable 87.0 pass block grade last week. He has only given up one quarterback hit and one QB pressure in the preseason, all in Week 1 and did not give up any pressures last week. He took 28 snaps at right tackle against the Chiefs and 30 snaps at left tackle last week and his grades remain steady.
Seantrel Henderson, another offensive tackle, was also signed this off season but his health has limited his performance in extremely small doses.
But ultimately, he’s been solid but not great and it certainly depends on what the Houston Texans are looking for and wanting out of Lamm. That might be just enough for this season but until the fat lady sings, I’m putting Lamm in the hot seat with all of the competition he has in front of him.